So, I just reviewed this book (Booze) for a very innovative organization full of world-changing leaders of tomorrow. Here’s the punchline: these world-changers are historians.

Led by these historians, Activehistory.ca is the coolest and most important website in the Twitterverse. Sure, as Editor-in-Chief of the second coolest site in the Twittervese, it pains me a little to say such things, but it’s totally true. The Daily Gumboot is, however, lucky enough to share the mind of Active Historian, Jim Clifford, who moves seamlessly between the two blogs online magazine online journals websites like a nineteenth-century farmer from the Lower Lea River Valley who spends his days tilling the fields and his evenings sabotaging the industrial workshops that will soon overwhelm and consume his pristine lands. Interpret this outstanding metaphor as you like.

Moving on…

So, what is this relevantly historical website? Activehistory.ca “is a website to help connect historians with the public, policy makers and the media.” Basically, it explores and celebrates history that makes a difference in the world and (this is my favourite part) “is transformative” to communities.

The website uses podcasts, blogging, photos, maps, videos, and other social media widgets to engage communities and make the issues and ideas of today relevant from a historical perspective – as it turns out, a lot of our mistakes and successes have happened before. History? Social media? Blogs? Videos? Interactive maps? What?! Hmmm…imagine such a thing actually being developed and, eventually, transforming the entire discipline. All you dusty tenured professors out there, well, it might be a good idea to be a little nervous and, hopefully, get a lot relevant.

In time, Activehistory.ca will be one of the most powerful twitblogs on the Interscape, too. Because, in addition to putting topical events of our contemporary world into important, relevant, meaningful, and interesting historical contexts, they also know how to build community. For you see, good readers, the Twitterverse’s two coolest sites recently joined forces in an innovative new way that involved someone other than Jim Clifford. Today, you can click over to Activehistory.ca and read my superawesome review of Booze: A Distilled History by Craig Heron. Disclaimer: “superawesomeness” may subjectively vary depending on tolerance of semi-colons, nerdiness and appreciation of unique approaches to historical study.

Here is an excerpt of the my recent review of Booze: A Distilled History:

So, a wild buffalo, four twelve year old boys and Jenny the Alcoholic Bear walk into Joe Beef’s tavern in Montreal.

Seriously. That really happened…in 1859. Regardless of when it was, I bet that the mechanical bull you rode last week doesn’t seem too cool anymore, does it?

And this is why Canadian history doesn’t get much better than Booze: A Distilled History. Craig Heron’s thoroughly enjoyable – and enjoyably thorough – romp through Canada’s boozey past is as approachably prose-worthy as it is an interconnected analysis of the social, economic, political, sexual, medical, racial, and cultural impact of alcohol on this country.

It gets better from here, too. And I can tell you’re already hooked! Booze analyzes and storytells all the things we love and hate about alcohol and community – drunks and drunkards, social agency, politics, business, sexuality, and, of course, drunken bears (see Alex Grant’s and my commentary about March Madness to confirm this fact). It’s a tour de force of Canadiana and I encourage you to visit Activehistory.ca to check it out in full.

To the editorial team at Activehistory.ca, I thank you for the link love, the collaboration and, most importantly, for the opportunity to be a part of your meaningful online experience. As a self-professed history nerd – albeit not an academic one – it was an honour that meant a lot.

- JCH

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